Seven out of the nine arrested accused in the Adarsh scam case on Monday applied for bail in the sessions court that was presided over by judge V. Virkar. The accused have sought bail on the grounds that the CBI has not filed a chargesheet in the case even two months after their arrest.
The central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had arrested nine accused in March this year for their alleged involvement in the Adarsh society scam. The arrested include Maj. Gen. (retd.) A.R. Kumar, Maj. Gen. (retd.) T.K. Kaul, Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Pradeep Vyas, former Congress legislator Kanhaiyalal Gidwani, retired defence estates officer R.C. Thakur, Brig. (retd.) M.M. Wanchoo, former deputy secretary, urban development, P.V. Deshmukh, former municipal commissioner Jairaj Phatak and retired information commissioner Ramanand Tiwari.
Apart from Phatak and Tiwari, all others have applied for bail. Defence counsel advocate Girish Kulkarni said, “We have filed the application under section 167(2) of CrPc. Under this section, the time period allotted to the investigating agency to file a chargesheet in the case is only 60 days. But in this case, the CBI has neither filed the charge sheet nor sought any extension from the court.”
The court has ordered the prosecution to file a reply on the bail applications by May 28.